The invention provides apparatus and methods for effecting remote commerce, such as in telemarketing (either inbound or outbound) and in electronic commerce, which are particularly adapted for the intelligent selection and proffer of products, services or information to a user or customer.
Telemarketing is a well-known form of remote commerce, that is, commerce wherein the person making the sale or taking the sales data is not in the actual physical presence of the potential purchaser or customer. In general operation, a prospective purchaser typically calls a toll-free telephone number, such as an 800 number. The number dialed is associated by the carrier as being associated with the telemarketer, and the dialed number, typically taken automatically from the carrier (long distance) through use of the dialed number identification service (DNIS), is utilized to effect a database access resulting in a “screen pop” of a script on a terminal for the telemarketer. In this way, when a prospective purchaser calls a given telephone number, a telemarketing operator may immediately respond with a script keyed to the goods or services offered. The response may be at various levels of specificity, ranging from a proffer of a single product, e.g., a particular audio recording, or may be for various categories of goods or services, e.g., where the dialed number is responded to on behalf of an entire supplier. Typically, the prospective purchaser is responding to an advertisement or other solicitation, such as a mail order catalog or the like, from which the telephone number is obtained.
In a typical telemarketing application, the item for which the caller makes initial contact is the item which is ordered by the customer. In certain instances, attempts are made to sell other goods or services directly related to the product for which contact was made. For example, if the initial contact was for audio recordings from a given singer, the additional offer may relate to yet further recordings from that same singer. Typically, the correlation between the products offered is predefined, and does not vary depending on the caller.
More generally, the term electronic commerce has been utilized in a broad and evolving manner for remote commerce where at least a portion of the customer-to-seller contact is in electronic form. For example, various forms of electronic on-line shopping services exist, as well as Internet based electronic commerce trading sites.
Yet certain of the related art systems fail to offer upsells to the potential customer in real time. Despite the efforts made over a significant period, an effective, useful system for the intelligent, automated provision of goods and services in the telephonic and electronic commerce areas is needed.